Prayers: Keeping Control

KEEPING CONTROL AS TIME MOVES ON:
A PRAYER FOR RETIREES

God of the Ages, please take my hand
as I pass through the final corridors
of my life.

I have put away
the "things of a child"
and indeed the joys of youth,
the responsibilities of middle age,
and the accomplishments and satisfactions
of my vigorous years in the world of work.

My time is now totally my own - and Yours.
Guide me, good God, to use these remaining years and months and weeks and days
and hours of my life
in ways pleasing to You.

Let me enjoy the pleasures of leisure,
but also put my mind and my resources
more than ever to the needs of others
and the good of Your kingdom on earth.

Let my health sustain me so that I become
a servant to many rather than a burden
to some.

Mens sana in corpore sano:
Please do let me retain
a sound mind in a sound body
if that is at all possible
in Your divine plan.

Please let me not forget my friends,
nor strangers in need.

In my time of relaxation and reduced responsibility, let me give greater thought to eternity, to You, to my fellow men,
and to my last days on earth.

Prompt me, Jesus, as to how I should best spend my time until the final hour
when you call me from this earthly life.

When that time comes, I pray that you will find me ready, confident without presumption, and at peace with the world.

Then, Lord, please bring me home
to the members of my family who have proceeded me, and to the friends whose lives were shorter than mine.

Let me, God Almighty, join my loved ones
at Your heavenly feast for all time to come
and beyond time to all eternity.

Please consider me always
Your faithful loving servant.

All this I pray to You, dear God of Peace,
of Time, of Wisdom and of Eternal Joy.

Amen

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